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Back Reverie
Chapters (53)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Letter from the Author
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. • One •
  7. • Two •
  8. • Three •
  9. • Four •
  10. • Five •
  11. • Six •
  12. • Seven •
  13. • Eight •
  14. • Nine •
  15. • Ten •
  16. • Eleven •
  17. • Twelve •
  18. • Thirteen •
  19. • Fourteen •
  20. • Fifteen •
  21. • Sixteen •
  22. • Seventeen •
  23. • Eighteen •
  24. • Nineteen •
  25. • Twenty •
  26. • Twenty-One •
  27. • Twenty-Two •
  28. • Twenty-Three •
  29. • Twenty-Four •
  30. • Twenty-Five •
  31. • Twenty-Six •
  32. • Twenty-Seven •
  33. • Twenty-Eight •
  34. • Twenty-Nine •
  35. • Thirty •
  36. • Thirty-One •
  37. • Thirty-Two •
  38. • Thirty-Three •
  39. • Thirty-Four •
  40. • Thirty-Five •
  41. • Thirty-Six •
  42. • Thirty-Seven •
  43. • Thirty-Eight •
  44. • ∞ •
  45. • Thirty-Nine •
  46. • Forty •
  47. Epilogue
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Excerpt from Be Dazzled
  50. One
  51. Two
  52. About the Author
  53. Back Cover

“After you unraveled Maxine’s reverie, we found you with this thing on your head. An artifact that was definitely not from the reverie. We think it’s what set off your powers, but we don’t know. It sort of looked like a crown, but it was burning you.” She gestured to the burns etched in Kane’s scalp.

Dread squirmed in his chest.

“I tried to remove it, but touching it did something to my powers, too. I couldn’t control them. It was like my powers turned inside out or something, and the whole mill decayed. So did your car. Elliot and Ursula would have died if it wasn’t for Ursula’s shield. But I held on, and it worked. I got it off and it threw it away, and when we looked for it later it was gone. Vanished.” She said this with the weight of a verdict. “You survived, but whatever I did destroyed some of your memories. When I checked in the hospital, everything from the summer was gone, and everything about us and the reveries with it.”

The booth was as still as a graveyard. Kane waited to see how he’d react. He waited for the dread to break apart and for an emotion to crawl out. He thought it might be betrayal again. Or doubt. Instead, what hatched within Kane was none of these things. It was fear, but he was smart enough not to show it. Outrage was a handy cover, and it flowed as quick as hot oil.

“You erased my memory?”

Adeline thrust out her chin. “Kane, I didn’t have a choice.”

Kane pushed from the booth.

“You put me into a coma? You crashed my dad’s car? You turned my family and the police against me?”

The clatter in the diner stopped, everyone focused on the boy shouting.

“She saved you, Kane,” said Elliot. “She’s been saving all of us ever since. Just after you went under, your family opened a police report to look into foul play, but Adeline got to them in time and made it so that they didn’t remember who we were, either. She’s the only one keeping us a secret.”

Kane backed away, horrified. “You erased my family’s memory?”

Adeline crossed her arms and glared at the dark windows. Kane’s stomach turned. Elliot followed Kane as he backed away. The eyes of everyone in the diner followed them, too.

“Kane, listen to me. It’s not perfect. None of it’s perfect. But you’re here now. You found your way back. And we need to work as a team now more than ever. You need to prove you can control your powers, or else—”

Kane lunged into a punch, catching Elliot in the cheek. His head snapped sideways and he fell, sweeping a stack of dirtied plates to the floor in a jagged crash.